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Why Conan O’Brien Should Do a Spinoff Show

When doing a television program, the goal is to be entertaining for a specified amount of time in order to have advertisers pay for air time. That’s obvious.

However, going about achieving that goal is a constantly evolving puzzle with changing tastes and distribution models and whatever screwy perceptions network brass has in what they think the public at large wants to watch. So many high concept or highly researched programming is brought to screens across America every year, much of it getting cancelled for any number of reasons that don’t have anything to do with ratings.

That’s why it’s pretty amazing to consider anyone that can make television damn entertaining from seemingly nothing. Conan O’Brien has showcased that very feat in his stints at Late Night and The Tonight Show as well as his current gig at TBS, Conan. Sure, late night hosts do their traditional “man on the street” with some sort of angle like “Jaywalking” with Jay Leno or Jimmy Kimmel tricking willing participants into lying on camera in various situations. O’Brien has proven time and time again that he can just go into a place without really any specific comedic angle and very little planned and make some of the funniest things we get to see on TV these days.

Just check out Conan visiting, of all places, The American Girl Store…

…or taking a Lyft car with Ice Cube and Kevin Hart…

…or being a Clueless Gamer…

…or visiting a random Halloween costume store…

…or calling a horse race…

…or looking for his heritage at an Irish Heritage Center…

…or investigating his staff for the disappearance of his assistant’s mug (which we’ve been assured just happens completely on the spur of the moment)…

…or even making a segment with one of the most serious people on the planet, Conan associate producer Jordan Schlansky, endlessly fun.

Basically, Conan O’Brien should just have a show where he shows up places and just gets to be Conan (thanks to @cleftclips for this idea). I mean, sure he has had his own late night talk show for 20 years, but you can take away the desk, couches, suits, stage, house band, guests, etc. and Conan can and has managed to make people laugh by just spinning his wedding ring on his desk and nothing else planned.

If The Soup has The Soup Investigates, and Chelsea Lately has After Lately, it would just seem natural that Conan would have a companion show called Conan Visits (obviously that’s a working title and it would be something much catchier, but you get the idea).

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Comments

  1. Anthony says:

    Title challenge accepted!
    One title theme should be Conan The X. Like Conan The Visitor, Conan The Rambler, Conan the Totsmagoat. OK, maybe not the last one. An unpolished theme like Raw Conan, Conan Unplugged, Conan Flashes. Finally a extra them like Conan Bits, Conan Cuts, Conan Offline.

  2. guest says:

    Conan Lives.

  3. aaron says:

    Awesome article! I agree 1000%! I’d watch Conan Visits every night!